Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Minsk in Belarus on 25 November together with Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde. The Ministers will meet President Alexander Lukashenko and Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei, as well as opposition and civil society representatives.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council (Development) will meet in Brussels on 25 November. Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will represent Finland at the meeting.

In the amendment to its 2020 budget proposal, the Government is proposing that the appropriations for discretionary government grants to civil society organisations that are relevant to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ responsibilities be increased to EUR 1.541 million from EUR 1.341 million.

Finland, the European External Action Service and the European Commission will co-organise a high-level event focusing on regional cooperation in the north in Helsinki on 29 November. The event, A Clean and Global North, is part of the programme for Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU. The event will also take into account the 20-year-old Northern Dimension policy, which has produced significant results in the environmental sector, for example, as regards the protection of the Baltic Sea.

The Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Singapore will enter into force on 21 November 2019.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will chair Foreign Affairs Council meeting on trade issues in Brussels on 21 November. EU trade ministers will discuss the WTO, EU-US trade relations, and the report on the implementation of EU free trade agreements.

Grete Faremo, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services UNOPS, will visit Finland on 22 November.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Rwanda on 21–22 November. He will give a statement and answer questions on behalf of the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini at the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda on 21 November. Minister Haavisto will also have bilateral meetings during the visit.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Brussels on 19 November to attend a meeting of the European Economic Area Council. Haavisto will represent the European Union in the meeting in his capacity as Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the country holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Sweden's Minister for Foreign Trade and Nordic Affairs Anna Hallberg will visit Finland on 19 November.